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European Pharmaceutical Contractor
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Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the bioterrorism attack using anthrax-tainted letters in the United States, the perceived risk of another, larger-scale bioterrorism attack has escalated sharply. Rather than a small, contained incident such as the anthrax letters, experts fear a larger aerosolised release of a biological weapon, which could result in high morbidity and mortality. It is incumbent upon the health care and public health systems to be as prepared as possible for a potential event.
Bioterrorism is unlike other terrorist activity and natural disasters. Identification of the event will most likely be delayed and the primary responders and response activities are different. Although the preparation and response for bioterrorism has many similarities to other disasters, there are also unique challenges.
How a bioterrorism event would unfold will depend a great deal on the following factors:
Whether the attack is covert or overt
How soon the attack is identified
Which agent is utilised
The scope of the release
The easiest way to explain the differences is to provide examples of different potential bioterrorism events and describe the possible outcomes. One of the best-case scenarios would be a small, announced attack utilising a bacterial agent for which we have identified effective antibiotics therapy and/or vaccination. For example, although the anthrax letters caused panic and fear, they caused very few casualties when compared to the potential damage inflicted upon a community if the same amount of agent had been aerosolised and released unannounced.
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